Resilience Across Borders

Direct interventions: we worked with two schools: one local public elementary school in Maryland and a tuition-free private school in the district of columbia serving students in underserved communities. We trained 11 teachers from these schools to implement our newly developed teacher-delivered intervention program, the Resilience builder program-universal (rbp-u) and collected teacher feedback to inform updates and revisions to the program's content and design. In addition, we began the approval process to conduct research with teachers and students in 20 local school systems Across Maryland, Virginia and the district of columbia with specific focus on schools serving economically marginalized communities (with 60% or more families who qualify for free and reduced meals.) Despite our extensive and persistent efforts, we did not receive notice for research approval from school systems by the end of the year. We did, however, begin developing partnerships with 2 local after-school non-profit organizations serving economically marginalized students that subsequently implemented the rbp-u during spring 2024.

Research: working in partnership with catholic university?s child cognition, affect, and behavior laboratory (c.a.b. Lab), our Resilience Across Borders research team published findings in a high-impact peer-reviewed research journal (brendan a. Rich, nina s. starin, christopher j. Senior, melissa m. zarger, colleen m. cummings, anahi collado & mary k. alvord (2023) improved Resilience and academics following a school-based Resilience intervention: a randomized controlled trial, evidence-based practice in child and adolescent mental health, 8:2, 252-268). This publication examined the effectiveness of the Resilience builder program (rbp), an intervention for children with deficits in social skills and self-regulation, from which our new Resilience builder program-universal is designed. In addition, approval to conduct research with teachers and students implementing the rbp-u gained approval from catholic university's institutional review board. This approval was necessary in order to begin the research approval process with local school systems.

Continuing education and professional development: Resilience Across Borders, Inc. disseminated research and best practices related to Resilience through talks, trainings and telehealth. Audiences at these events included a range of populations including mental health professionals, parent groups and educators.